Smart phone When it comes to the market, you’ll find a great mix of very budget-friendly options, mid-range options, and premium flagship devices. iPhone 14 Pro, Pixel 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra As great as flagships like these are, not everyone can afford a phone that starts at around 25,000-30,000 TL and goes up from there.
While there are some good mid-range smartphones, you’ll have to be careful when considering truly budget-friendly “cheap” devices. Here are a few caveats to consider before tempting you with that smartphone that looks too good to be true.
See the amount of internal storage
One of the most important things to consider when buying a new smartphone is the amount of internal storage. These days, the absolute minimum amount of storage a phone should have should be at least 64GB and ideally 128GB. I mean, yes, you can get by with 64GB if you’re very aware of what you’re downloading and doing with your phone, but 128GB is an excellent starting point.
General Mobile recently bought a new one for only 3,000 TL. General Mobile GM 22 announced his phone. It’s tempting, isn’t it? But it only comes with a single storage capacity of 32GB. These days, you can literally fill up to 32GB in a few days, since most of this space is also used by the operating system itself.
Consider the size of apps and games in the Google Play Store, which can range from a few megabytes to a gigabyte or more, depending on how large the graphics and other items are for the game or app in question. Then think of the photos and videos you might want to take or even download to look back on. How about a downloaded audio or video to entertain yourself when you can’t make a data connection?
These are all things to consider, and something like the General Mobile GM 22’s 32GB of storage is pretty much nothing these days. Of course, you can expand the storage on the General Mobile GM 22 as it supports microSD cards up to 256GB, but you’ll still get slow performance if that internal storage is full.
Always take a look at what the cheap budget phone has to offer in terms of storage. No one can manage with 32GB these days, which is actually even less as most of the OS already takes up space. Consider investing that money in something with more basic storage instead.
Make sure the charging speed can handle the battery size
You’ll want to make sure you always check the battery capacity and charge speeds of your phone, you know, at least to ensure you get through an entire day. With a large 5,000mAh battery and up to 33W fast charging for just £7,000. Oppo A96 There are a few more affordable options out there that get you big batteries.
But still the General Mobile GM 22 shows how not to get things done. It also comes with a 5,000mAh battery and looks very good for $3,000 at first. But unfortunately, unlike the Oppo A96, the new GM 22 only has up to 5W charging speeds and that’s wired! With a 5,000mAh battery, it takes a long time to charge at 5W, so don’t expect it to charge quickly in the middle of the day. For phones like this, all that matters is an overnight charge. While General Mobile says you’ll get up to three days of battery on a single charge, you can’t avoid the long charging time.
However, if you want an affordable phone with a big battery that can get you through the day, be sure to double-check the charging speeds as well. Fast charge levels of 20W and above are acceptable these days. Levels like 33 W are ideal for affordable phones.
Check the screen and resolution
If you’re in the market for affordable phones, you shouldn’t expect anything like an iPhone 14 Pro with a 120Hz ProMotion OLED display with 460 pixels per inch (ppi). But you also have to make sure that the resolution is good enough by today’s standards.
Xiaomi Redmi 8 It features an HD+ display that maxes out at 720 x 1520 (HD+) Pixels only. That means it has about 270 ppi. However, this is in line with a phone in this price range and has a 60Hz refresh rate – which is essentially on par with the iPhone 14’s 60Hz.
But still, this is a device you’ll be looking at for most of your day. When Apple introduced the Retina Display iPhone 3GSfrom iPhone 4I’ve personally noticed a big difference when moving to , and there is a big difference when moving from HD LCD to OLED. When you have a lower resolution screen, everything may look blurry around the edges and objects may not be as sharp. Especially in graphics-intensive games, overall performance can also be affected, such as framerate drops and stuttering.
So, even if a smartphone may seem very enticing due to its low price tag, consider the overall appearance and performance of the screen of a device you’ll be staring at all day. Considering all this, a Full HD phone with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution can be your starting point in this price category.
Why are chipset (Chip) and RAM important?
Computer chips in general are always evolving, including those found in smartphones. To make a smartphone super affordable, it’s not uncommon for them to use an old chip from maybe a year or two ago.
The average person may not consider the chip in their smartphone, but it’s pretty important. This is because you must have a smartphone that can last at least two years; this is about the typical upgrade cycle. (Or with the warranty period)
For example, Motorola Moto G Play (2023)Take a look at The phone will be released on January 12, 2023. However, it was first released in late 2020. MediaTek Helio G37 using the chip. So in 2023, this phone is already using an entry-level chip that is more than two years old. At this point, even entry-level smartphone chips could evolve in two years, so why pay for old and outdated chips?
RAM is also an important factor affecting the performance of a phone. Most typical budget Android devices have at least 4GB of RAM at this price point, which is a good thing. But the G Play and other affordable phones only have 3GB of RAM, so they don’t even meet the 4GB minimum. Again, money could be better spent on something a little better.
Importance of software updates
Motorola is shipping the G Play (2023) with Android 12 and will only receive one software update for the current Android 13. After that, there will be no other software updates besides security updates.
In case you missed it, Android 13 is the current Android operating system currently available on Google Pixel devices like the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Most android phone it usually gets at least two years of software updates, but budget phones can get less than that. Another important factor to consider – do you really want to spend money on a phone that will be obsolete in a year, or is it better to spend it on something that will get two, three or four years of major software updates?
And long-term updates aren’t limited to expensive flagships these days. Galaxy A53 5G, can be purchased for around 10,000 TL and four years of Android updates are guaranteed. If you plan to use your phone for more than a year, this is not something you want to ignore.
Don’t be fooled by multiple camera sensors
You may see multiple cameras on a cheap Android phone, but don’t be fooled; they are not always what they seem. For example, on an iPhone 14 Pro you have a three-lens camera system with main, ultra-wide and telephoto camera lenses. You may be trained to think that every phone with multiple cameras on the back has main and ultra-wide sensors that have become standard. But that’s not entirely the case.
OnePlus Nord N300 5GI thought it was a dual camera system, but that’s not the case at all. When I actually got my hands on it, the second “camera” turned out to be a 2MP depth sensor, which didn’t help the photos come out much to be honest. The Moto G Play (2023) may appear to have a triple camera system, but in reality it is a single 16 MP camera with a 2 MP depth sensor and a 2 MP macro sensor.
As long as the phone can take good pictures, it might not be considered a big deal, right? Yes, but when it comes to photos, I wasn’t all that impressed with the OnePlus Nord N300 5G’s performance. The images looked a little too artificial in terms of color, so they were different from what you’d see in real life or were too washed out.
If you don’t care at all about photo quality, don’t be fooled by these cheap phones and what looks like multi-camera systems.
Why waste money on scrap when you can spend it on something better?
I know – the price can be tempting when you can get a smartphone for less than $3,000 or $5,000. But sometimes, the phone has too many flaws and eventually something you might regret. Seriously, if you’re considering buying a phone because it’s cheap, make sure the specs are good, at least by today’s standards. If not, you can take that money and invest it in something you really enjoy using.
Yes, I know – what if you’re buying a cheap phone as a backup in case of an emergency? This might work, but if it’s only really an emergency backup phone for calls and text messages, you might really want to consider getting a cheaper non-smart phone.
Just because you can get a very cheap Android phone even as a spare doesn’t mean you should always get it.